Several hours of painful digging and climbing later, they were finally out~! Previously, after Diana had masterfully completed the last puzzle, her amazing idea caused the hourglass to overload, and explode! Which caused the entire room to be flooded with sand…yeah…

Well, they were out, they completed the puzzle, and most importantly, they survived! So that’s great.

And just like promised, once they escaped from the previous room, Diana was greeted by a table, with a note and an amulet laying there. With the help of her trusty translator, who was still very pissed, they read the note together.

‘Congratulations. To commend the speed of your completion, I have prepared this reward for you. This is the ‘Phenom Amulet’. A treasure that has been kept within this place. Please take it with you, and good luck.’

Without further ado, Diana took the amulet and equipped it in her Accessory slot, and…Huh, nothing much has happened. That’s slightly disappointing. Maybe it just gives her some stat boost. That’s good enough.

Anyways, moving on, the next room, was huge! Like, huge huge. Seriously, standing inside this place was giving her reverse-claustrophobia, if that even exists. What kind of titanic being were they going to fight here?! All 12 of the colossus even?!

Hmm? There seems to be something just sitting there, in the centre of the room. Ooh~! After they walked closer, they realised that it was sword, stabbed into the ground! It was the fabled sword in the stone!

It was not Excalibur though.

Wait, its another sword…*Gasp!* Oh My Goooddd!! C-Could it be?! Another weapon-based boss?! Uah~! She’s already had enough of these battles! She didn’t want to fight a pseudo-Crystal!

…………Eh? O-Oh, the sword’s, not moving. Huh. So the sword wasn’t the boss? Heh, this felt odd, but heck, she’ll take it!

“…Switch.”

“He~? Really?”

According to Rei, that sword was apparently a switch! Wait, does that mean that the fourth puzzle wasn’t a boss battle after all? Well, just like you do with a switch, Diana ran up to it, and twisted it…!

Ara, she couldn’t twist it. The heck? She couldn’t rotate the sword at all! Did the sword get jammed while waiting for someone to turn it around?! When was this place built an-, oh, she just pulled it up. Aah~, that makes sense~! It’s a sword stuck in a stone! Of course you have to pull it out~!

*Vvvvrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu*

“W-Woah?! T-The ground’s s-shaking!”

No, it wasn’t just shaking, the ground was opening! The stone floor was moving away from each other, giving light to the four staircases hidden underneath! Yep, these four staircases were the entrance down into the challenge!

This time, the name of the challenge was-

[The Prison of Eternity; Tartarus!]

You saw it folks! The next challenge was the famous prison of mythology, Tartarus! On the topic of Tartarus, I wonder what time it is now? Let’s hope it wasn’t midnight, or else the Dark Hour will occur.

“The challenge was simple, traverse down into [Tartarus], make your way around, or into, the prisons. The deeper you go, the tougher the enemies will get, but that also meant more treasure to take back. At the deepest level, you would find the three judges, and behind them, sits the greatest treasure of this catacomb.

It’s kinda like a risk Vs. rewards thing. If you choose to go around the prisons, you would encounter less enemies, and overall compound less stress on your head. If you do choose to enter the prisons however, then at the end of each prison, sits special treasures that are a multitude stronger than those found by simply going down into [Tartarus].

But, know that this challenge is not a puzzle by any means. There are few to no puzzles placed inside this challenge, only enemies, and tough ones at that! If you die here…Well, better luck in your next life.”

This information came from your most trusted translator, Crystal.

“Why the hell do I need to translate this?!”

Such is the comment from our lovely translator!

That aside, it’s time to start their adventure, down into [Tartarus]!

………………………

Okay, first up, this place was brutal!!

“U-Uwah?! T-That was close!”

As of now, Diana was engaged in a close-quarter fight against a very tough enemy, a giant rock with hands! No, seriously, it’s a giant rock with hands, and it’s really strong! One strike from it could send her flying!

To rewind a bit, right as they entered, a welcoming group of monsters came to party with them, but they were easily dispatched off. But before they knew it, the floor below them opened up, and they were swallowed whole!

When Diana came to, she was on a different floor, separated from the rest. And then, this rock guy came along and decided to ruin her day, but jokes on it, since it’s her turn to ruin its day!

“Ha!”

*Boom!*

From the inside, the giant rock suddenly cracked and blew apart! Now, the reason why that rock suddenly exploded, was not because of an explosion. Diana wasn’t Megumin. Instead, using her [Slime: Corrosive!], she dug her slime into it and when the time came, made all the slime explode outwards, which caused, this.

That battle took 10 minutes of running in total

Wave of satisfaction aside, she should probably leave now. She needed to find the rest of her party! Oh, and maybe snag some loot for herself if the opportunity arises.

Just like in Persona, the way to go deeper in was to go down, by stairs. The only difference being the fact that it was inverted, and instead of ascending up to tower, she was descending deeper into this eternal prison!

Her plan for now was to try and descend further, until she either meets someone by chance, or reunites with her party at the deepest level. The former was very unlikely, but there’s still a slither of a chance, so the possibility’s still-

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“Woah! New enemy found!”

This time, the enemy was a, floating book. It’s not as weird as the giant rock with arms, but this was still pretty weird. Now, thoughts aside, how was she going to deal with this…since this floating book just shot out a fireball, which meant that it could cast magic!

Well, it was nice to know that the book was still pretty slow, so dodging it wasn’t too complicated! Trying to attack it though…might prove difficult. First up, it can use magic, which is bad, since her slime sucks against magic.

“[Slime Cannon]!”

With the added benefits of her amulet and iron staff, a speeding slime ball was launched, but there lies the second problem. Just as it was about to hit, a barrier was erected around it, blocking the incoming slime, and sending it back to her!

It’s just like the [Reflect] move from Pokémon, but shot with a requiem arrow!

The barrier swiftly melted away as the floating book readied another fireball!

But, this was where her ingenious plan would come into action! First, she casted another [Slime Cannon] and shot it out. It quickly cancelled the fireball it was casting and, just like before, erected a magical barrier around it to reflect it back.

But! Just as the barrier was melting away-

“[Corrosion]!”

A thick line of slime came down from the ceiling and cut through the book, corroding it as the slime made contact! The book tried to cast another barrier, but the barrier could only erect around the book! Once something was too close, it couldn’t stop it!

This was one of the many results of her intensive training!

And with that, the book easily melted away, and her second battle was deemed a success!

Oho~, and there was loot this time around! As the last of the book was corroded away, there was a single page left behind. Looks like a page of that magical floating book was left intact for her to take and read!

Well, she couldn’t exactly read it, but with her obligatory translator, she should be able to decipher this magical page, filled with runes and magical constructs. Now, time to find the stairs and descend further in!

………………………

Meanwhile, with Rei,

*BOOM!!!*

“…Phew.”

Just then, she had just finished a tough boss fight against a golem-type enemy. I said tough as in that the boss had very high defence, because the entire golem was made out of various tact-on metals and minerals. Sadly, it didn’t make up for a hard boss fight, since all she did was do the ‘DURARARARARARARA!!!’ and, bam! Explosion!

To jump back slightly, after she located where the stairs were, she decided not to go down yet, and went around to explore some more, to maybe try and find Diana and the others. Instead of Diana, she found that big guy, and destroyed him in around, uh…19 seconds, tops.

But she didn’t fight that boss for nothing! Standing in between her and the giant rubble of what was previously a tough boss fight, was a pair of metallic gauntlets. It seems to be made from some very dense and tough materials. There were also some carvings and letters on it, but she couldn’t read them.

And the gauntlets were also quite magical, fitting in to match her hands’ size when she put them on! Tbh, she didn’t really need a weapon, since her fists could do the talking all day long, but some extra bonus physical damage shouldn’t hurt.

Sadly, she didn’t find Diana, nor did she find anything she could give her. With nothing left on the floor, left desolate and decimated by Rei’s fists, she went back to where the stairs were and descended deeper into the prison.

……………………

Deeper in, with Crystal,

“Gugha?!”

“Just die already! [Phantom Blade]!”

*Puchi!*

As of that moment, Crystal was busy dealing with a very annoying vampire-like enemy. It’s appearance was that of a young girl, with yellow blonde hair, and red eyes…Wait, that’s kinda like Yue from Arifureta-!

And just like a certain blonde hair loli vampire, this vampire was not giving up! She’s ensnared it and crushed it with her [Shadow Bind], pierced its body with her [Phantom Needle Rain], and sliced and diced it with countless [Phantom Blades], but it was still alive and kicking!

Then again, it was looking kinda pale, so that meant that its mana reserves were on the verge of running dry, which was great! She’s been deadlocked in this battle for about 5 minutes now, and her mana was beginning to take a hit too.

But, finally, after all that boring slog and grind, the vampire falls to its knees, and falls apart into chunks of meat and blood, the perfect dinner for the White Glove Society back in New Vegas.

References aside, her path was now clear, and the staircase leading down to the next floor was open to go through. Then again, should she dive deeper into this eternal prison? Shouldn’t she wait for Diana and-

Nah, they’ll be fine. Waiting here for an eternity would give her an untreatable Boredom Syndrome. Descending further in was genuinely way more fun. Oh, but that wasn’t a copout, no no, that’s simply her trust in her. She knows how damn tenacious that slime girl can be at times, even more than that vampire even. So she’ll be fine!

As for that ghoul…Well, it’s not like she doesn’t get along with her, but seeing her with Diana all the time ticks her off for some reason. But that ghoul’s strong, really strong. She doubted if she could even beat her at a one on one battle.

Is totally not going tsun over Diana

Anyways, with the vampire ready to serve, Crystal shrugged her shoulders and descended down the stairs, going deeper into this prison.

…………………………

Well, as for Slimey…

*Boink, boink!*

He was doing what he does best, running and hopping around as it scouted for nearby enemies and treasures, and maybe even find his queen! From the connection the two share, Diana didn’t seem to be in any trouble, but even then, he couldn’t help but be worried!

As a small and agile being, he was skilfully moving and snaking around the floor to locate the staircase to descend further in, just like everyone else was doing. Then again…there was a treasure chest there, and he could easily gather that…

*Boink!*

Ah, screw it! It may make him slightly heavier, but the extra effort would be worth it! Anything to make his queen even more powerful, he would gladly undertak-

*Ceklunk!*

*B-Boink?!*

You thought it was a treasure chest, but it was me, DI-, floor trap! The floor he was bouncing on suddenly clipped open, causing him to fall into the darkness! He let out one last *Boink* of help before the floor closed back.

One of the four members have fallen prey to the challenge!

……………………

Back with our lovely female protagonist,

“Take, this!!”

*BAK!!*

As of now, she was battling(completely dominating) against a giant purple beetle! Just as she finished walking down the stairs, this purple scaled guy appeared suddenly and jumped at her! Because of the shock, she shot out a large amount of sticky slime and glued it onto the nearby wall. She also made a very girly scream.

To switch out a bit, and also to make it meet its death as slowly as she could, she pulled out her iron wand and began using it as a disciplinary stick, whacking and hitting it over and over again, in hopes that it would die, and also improve her [Polearm Mastery].

With one last satisfying hit, the beetle let out one feeble screech before it succumbed to the large head trauma it received from her. Sadly, no level ups just of yet, since the bar to the next level was set quite high this time, but she’ll be patient.

“Phew…Thank goodness no one heard that…”

“My, are you sure, young lady?”

Yes! Of course she was sure! Her party was separated and spread out across this descending dungeo-, wait…did someone just speak to her before?

“Are you okay, young lady?”

“Kya?! W-Who are you?! Where are you?!?!”

“My, I am right here, young lady.”

W-What the…? Without her noticing, a short, bearded man suddenly appeared before her, like, out of thin air! Like, poof! And he’s there!

“W-Who, are you?”

“Allow me to introduce myself. I, am Igor.”

Igor, the short man with a hefty beard and a polite attitude, that suddenly appeared before her as she finished her first battle of this floor…Huh, this guy sounds like some NPC who would give her some quest or whatnot.

“S-So, Igor, what do you, uh, want, exactly?”

“My reasonings are simple. I have come here to present you a trade.”

“A, trade?”

“Yes. I require [3 Large Star Crystals]. If you bring them to me, I shall present you with a gift. How does it sound?”

Yep, her assumption was exactly on spot too! But, [3 Large Star Crystals]? Where the hell would she find those? Were they monster drops? Or did she need to find them by exploring this entire floor area?

“And, uh, where do I, find them?”

“I believe they could be found at specific locations on this floor. However, I have heard that each crystal is being guarded by a very strong sentinel. A man as weak as myself could not hope to face against those beings.”

Ah, so it was both. She needed to find the crystals AND battle against a tough enemy to get them. How troublesome…But she’ll do it anyways! That ‘Gift’ of his sounded very tempting, and any help she could get would be nice too!

“Uh, alright then! I’ll do it!”

“My, I must thank you, young lady!”

Alright, her first side-quest has been acquired! Now, time to commence the mission!